The Tamil Nadu based NGO, Pasumai Thaayagam, urged the UN Human Rights Council to ensure that the 6 months granted to the new Sri Lankan government lead to tangible improvements to the Tamil people.
"Six years since the end of the armed conflict, Sri Lankan troops, who are almost entirely ethnically Sinhalese, continue to be deployed across the Tamil areas in the North-East," the NGO's representative Vinthan Asokanathan told the Council on Friday, during an Item 5 general debate on minority issues.
Acknowledging the new government's ambitious 100 day plan to reform the state, Pasumai Thaayagam said it "while these reforms provide welcome reprieve to the Sinhala Buddhist people - who are the larger in population, and who have also had their freedoms curtailed by the previous government - the proposed reforms fail to address the concerns of the Tamil people who have faced discrimination and oppression by successive Sinhala majority governments."
